Your KIRC caregiving calendar of events and news you can use for the week of March 27-April 3, 2022
KIRC is working to keep an eye on a round-up of events and developments impacting YOU - the caregiver!
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
California Department of Aging - Master Plan for Aging
Informational Hearing on the Master Plan for Aging
Hosted by: the Committee on Aging & Long-Term Care
You can watch the hearing from its livestream on the Assembly’s Website.
Upcoming Caregivers Course
Taking Care of You: Powerful Tools for Caregivers
This is an upcoming virtual class for caregivers, hosted by: the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.
The event flyer describes this course as:
“Whether you are caring for a person who lives at home, in a nursing home, or across the country, this class is for you. This class will enable you to care more effectively for your loved one and ensure that you care for yourself, as well.”
From Justice in Aging
Justice in Aging is a powerful resource for news and information. It can be time consuming to to sift through the various portals, so Keeping it REAL Caregiving is striving to take care of the heavy lifting for you!
Justice in Aging has shared the following information:
There is a new online tool to get started applying for SSI
Individuals have a new way to apply for SSI using an online tool that was just released by the Social Security Administration. Applicants and individuals assisting applicants can now use this tool to request an appointment to apply for SSI benefits. The request establishes a protective filing date that will be used as the application date, so long as the individual submits an SSI application within 60 days. Establishing a protective filing date is important because the protective filing date is used to determine when an individual can start receiving SSI benefits.
Also from Justice in Aging, a new infusion of funds - $3-million dollars worth, designed to target care needs for elders.
A portion of the press release reads:
Justice in Aging, the only national legal organization focused on ending senior poverty and advancing equity for older adults, received a $3 million gift from Mackenzie Scott in late 2021. Justice in Aging is grateful and excited to share this news as it enters its 50th year serving low-income older adults. This gift will enable Justice in Aging to deepen and broaden its Advancing Equity in Aging Initiative, through which the organization ensures all of its work advances equity for those who have experienced structural discrimination. The gift will also increase capacity for the organization’s ongoing health care, economic security, housing, and elder rights advocacy.
You can read the full release here.
From the White House
A new spotlight and focus on the state of our nation’s nursing homes: specifically, who owns them and are those owners putting profit above care?
An excerpt from a White House release highlights the issue: The Administration is announcing new steps by Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) through its Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to improve the quality and safety of nursing homes, to protect vulnerable residents and the health care heroes who care for them, and to crack down on bad actors:
A recent study found that residents in nursing homes acquired by private equity were 11.1% more likely to have a preventable emergency department visit and 8.7% more likely to experience a preventable hospitalization, when compared to residents of for-profit nursing homes not associated with private equity.
You can read the full release here, which includes several studies and research shining a light on the increase in private equity firms owning and operating nursing homes and facilities.
Courtesy: Adobe Stock
In the news
Senate Aging Committee Hearing on Home-Based Support (3.23.2022)
On Wednesday, (3.23.2022) the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on “An Economy That Cares: The Importance of Home-Based Services.” The hearing focused on expanding Medicaid home- and community-based services (HCBS), including Chairman Bob Casey’s Better Care Better Jobs Act legislation, which is the basis for the $150 billion HCBS investment that the House passed last year.
Keeping it Real Caregiving Sunday Coffee Chat & Support Hour
SAVE THE DATE & JOIN US!
The next Keeping it REAL Caregiving Sunday Coffee Chat & Support Hour is Sunday, April 3, 2022 @ 8:00 AM Pacific/ 11:00 AM Eastern
Join us for a powerful discussion about how we cope and move through loss and grief.
KIRC will be joined by our special guest, Toni Miles, MD, PhD, FGSA, Epidemiologist.
Dr. Miles is an advisor to eldercare initiatives including the CDC Healthy Brain, Georgia's Alzheimer's Task Force, and the John A. Hartford Foundation.
Based at the University of Georgia, Dr. Miles works with organizations to identify Best Practices in Bereavement Care.
Hope you will join us - this is going to be a beneficial discussion!
We’ll be streaming live on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Login details coming soon!
Until nex time~
Julia
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*Header image: Adobe Stock
